There is a known image processing method in which noise reduction is performed on the basis of the strength of edges in an acquired image (for example, see PTL 1 and PTL 2). This method uses Non Local Means (NLM) processing using, as spatial information, weights based on the similarities between a pixel-of-interest region and regions of adjacent pixels. Furthermore, there is a known technique for performing noise reduction using, as frequency information, frequency components based on edge strengths (for example, see PTL 3).